Uganda’s plan to send health specialists to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has met strong resistance within the country, because of the perceived local need for doctors, nurses, and midwives. A local think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, has taken the Ugandan government to court over the issue.

But the authorities are adamant that the arrangements should go ahead. The international affairs minister, Henry Okello Oryem, told The BMJ, “Many Ugandan doctors [go to] work in South …